


The Day The World Went To Shit

by stevebarnes (dystopiass)



Series: The Gifted - prequel [1]
Category: The Gifted (TV 2017), X-Men - All Media Types
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-25
Updated: 2017-10-25
Packaged: 2019-01-22 18:26:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12488068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dystopiass/pseuds/stevebarnes
Summary: It was such a cliché thing to say but Lorna could remember perfectly where she was and what she was doing when the world went to shit.





	The Day The World Went To Shit

She had been sitting in the shadow cast by one of the old oaks of the park, her sociology book open in her lap. However, she hadn’t been paying attention to it for a long time now, too busy observing and laughing at the teenagers running around in front of her. Lorna had stopped being a student at Charles Xavier’s School for Gifted Children for two years, but in reality, she had never actually left the school at all. Almost every weekend you would find her here, mingling with the students and helping out from time to time. She was far from being the only former student to come back on weekends and vacation; after all, the school was known for taking orphans, runaways, and other rejected kids. Therefore, the school was always filled up with people from varying age. Today her friend Kitty was back from university too, actually, they had driven back together since they were both studying in New York. Lorna was taking sociology and physics while Kitty was into mathematics, English and psychology. Lorna had no idea how she managed all her courses, but Kitty had always been the smartest of their promo. Her boyfriend, Piotr, was there too, but he actually still lived at the school, having decided to stay behind and become a teacher. He was helping out with any classes that needed a second hand while working to get his teaching degree.

 

It was a sunny day, Kitty and Prior were keeping up with the famous tradition of no-power-baseball games and like always, it was a struggle. There had been a conflict, a kid had used their powers to push another or something like that, she was unable to remember who or what it was about exactly but at the time it had felt like the funniest thing. Thinking about it, it might have been Samuel Guthrie… No, it was James Proudstar. Now she remembered. That kid had been such a show off, nothing like his older brother. John had been in Lorna’s class, but they had lost touch when they both left the school. Now she was sure, it had been James using his powers to impress some girl and that had backfired in the most comical ways. Kitty was reprimanding him while Lora was laughing her ass off. That was when it happened. In a cloud of black smoke, Kurt Wagner had materialized just a few centimetres from Kitty. There had been a scream. There was often screaming involved when Kurt teleported without notice, especially around younger students. But this time, it didn’t seem like the usual scream. Then Kitty had screamed too and Lorna had run. Kitty was trying to hold Kurt in her arms, but clearly she was failing. Lorna caught him by his metal belt and held him there. As she got closer she could see his back was completely burnt. It wasn’t just his back. His torso and part of his face was burnt too, turning his blue skin into black. Piotr was trying to keep control of the students; Kitty was crying and talking to Kurt, comforting him or herself probably. They had always been close.  
Lorna didn’t know where to start; her first aid knowledge was clearly not up to the task. Kurt and some of the older X-men, the famous and holy X-men, had gone out on a mission earlier in the afternoon. Lorna didn’t know more than that, as she had refused to join the X-men, and so she was never informed about what was going on. Kids came rushing out the building, all talking at the same time. Something was wrong on TV they said. Lorna didn’t have the time. She found help for Kurt in a kid with golden skin and healing powers. When she took the time to join the common room it was full of kids crying silently and holding each other. The TV was showing helicopter footage of a large hole in the ground. Big capital letters at the bottom of the screen indicated “MUTANT FIGHT DESTROY TOWN.” Then, the blurry footage of the X-men and the Brotherhood entering the building filmed through bushes, clearly from a cellphone. And after the explosion. Its whiteness was forever haunting the back of Lorna’s eyelids.

 

Yeah. That was when it all went to shit. The beginning of the end. Not a single X-man came back from that mission. Dead or alive, they never made themselves known. It all went blurry after. The days melted into each other in a confusion of pressing matters. The only teacher who had stayed behind that day, McCoy, helped a lot in the beginning. Until he was gone too. Kurt was removed from his hospital room. One by one the X-men and those who helped them disappeared. They had tried to keep the school open as long as they could. Kitty and Lorna had both dropped out to come back full time to the school. In vain. Charles Xavier’s testament indicated that all his money should be left to the school and whoever was running it. He had made a list of possible successors. All dead or missing. But then, no body, no death, right? So his testament was never actually applied. The family of the victims had come together and sued the X-men. They had been the only ones who could be held accountable. The trial was on every screen. The school closed. Special services came to take the remaining kids, those with nowhere to go. That was the first time Lorna had truly felt powerless. Piotr’s visa was revoked. Lorna and Kitty had stuck together, that is, until Kitty never came back from the courtroom. She was there, and then, she wasn’t anymore.

 

Now, Lorna was watching another TV, while waiting at the counter to pay for yet another hair coloring product. “THREE YEARS LATER, NATION STILL MOURN.” Yeah. Lorna was mourning too.

**Author's Note:**

> Only a X-men related show could make me actually publish something I wrote. I indicated this as a serie as I have other ideas but we'll see if anybody is interested in knowing more.


End file.
